“What is it?” Eric asks.
“Just go back to when Cruz first walks into the store.” Eric humors me, rewinding it. “Now look.” The others get up from their seats, curious. They crowd around our backs, peering at the screen. “There,” I point, as a tattered black van withJimmy’s Electricalpainted on the side drives past.
“So?” Kian asks.
Glaring over my shoulder at him, he mimes zipping his lips, and I turn back to the screen. “And again.” The van drives past a second time, then later, a third.
Eric scrambles to find more cameras, and lucks out—across from the alley behind the jewelry store is an ATM, its camera pointed right at the alley. Eric gets the footage, scrolling back to the time in question.
“There!” Susannah points to the edge of the screen, where you can see the van driving past. Eric scrolls further back, and there it is, exiting the alley.
“Can we track its movements?” I ask, feeling the first flicker of hope in my chest.
Eric nods, then grimaces. “I can do my best. I’m not sure I can get into every camera, but I’ll try. Trey, what does the tracker show?”
Trey turns in my direction, his brows furrowed and obsidian eyes filled with sadness. “His tracker is offline. It went dark shortly after he was taken.”
I collapse back in my chair, gripping my hair tightly in my hands. “They found it?”
Trey rubs the back of his neck. “I can only assume so. Unless they’ve put him in a Faraday cage, it’s the only other option.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.”
I should go do something productive while Eric searches the cameras, but my body refuses to move. Everyone stays to show their support, and I’m grateful to them for it. Even if I can’t fully appreciate it right now.
“Yes,” Eric hisses some time later, and I lift my head from my arms wearily.
“Yes? You found him?”
“I think so. I’m able to follow the van north out of the city. It gets a little spotty from there, but I keep picking up the van heading toward Connecticut.” He searches more, his brows lowering. “Okay, now here’s where it gets difficult. The van seems to be heading toward Greenwich, but not the main town. It stretches out into the surrounding hills and forests. This is where I lose the van, there are no more cameras.”
A frown clouds my face. “Why would he be out there?” I murmur to myself. Eric pulls up a virtual map, and we go through it. As he said, Greenwich, but on the outskirts. As we scroll through, I notice the houses are all huge, on large plots of land; many of which sit on several acres. Trees are everywhere, providing plenty of privacy, and as we scroll, I remember something.
As if a lightning bolt shoots through me, I sit up straight, my mind whirring. “Ryan, didn’t we hear chatter about a large purchase Vincenzo was making?”
Ryan inclines his head. “There was speculation he could be buying a property.”
“Eric, can you change it to satellite view?”
While scrolling past the houses, I noticed that some were gated, while others were open, and still others were far enough back from the road that you couldn’t see the house from it.
That’s what my father would want; total privacy from the neighbors, but at the same time, to live in an affluent area where people would look up to him for it. It’s the kind of bullshit kids do in high school—you don’t have the latest sneakers, you’re a loser—but for narcissistic adults.Look at me, look at what I have!I roll my eyes, but the sad fact is that it’s true.
Now that I’m seeing it, I realize it’s perfect. It’s an easy commute to and from the city, about an hour or so. It’s private. He can show off and make himself feel like he’s made it in the world but maintain enough privacy to hide his criminal activities.
Eric brings the satellite view up, slowly moving around the screen. We gather round, and by the time we’ve gone over the entire area, we’ve picked out twelve houses that fit the bill.
“On it,” Trey says before I can even say anything, and I exchange smiles with Rebecca. He begins searching through estate sales and he pulls up one completed just a few weeks ago. “It’s the only house that’s been on sale in the past five months,” he explains, and I allow a sliver of excitement to rush through me.
I love the hunt, the chase. Tracking down the villains and putting them down.
We’re coming for you.
Chapter 58
Dutch
